B.C. woman gets refund for Cuba trip, but goes anyway and now has to pay

A woman who booked her family an all-inclusive vacation through a travel website will have to pay for the whole $3,500 trip, the province’s civil resolution tribunal found.

In a decision rendered last week, tribunal chair Andrea Ritchie found that Salina Yu would have to pay $3,447 for the vacation she booked on Feb. 22, 2018, despite the fact that her credit card company refunded Yu that amount.

For her part, Yu told the tribunal she owes TripLink nothing and claims the company should pay for both the vacation and $1,149 in damages due to the “bad vacation.”

Yu told the tribunal she booked an all-inclusive trip to Cuba for her, her husband and her son by mistake and that she meant to book it through a different booking agency.

However, Ritchie found since Yu filled out a long, detailed form to make the booking, her claim a computer virus had caused the error was not valid.

Yu used her credit card to get a refund after TripLink told her the trip was non-refundable, but the family went on the March 2018 vacation anyway.

Ritchie found that because the family did go on the vacation, she is “satisfied she is required to pay for the services she booked and used.”

Yu’s complaints about the quality of her room and that she and her son got sick during the trip do not involve TripLink, Ritchie wrote.

“In this situation, TripLink did not provide the vacation itself, as it was only a booking agency,” the decision read.

Ritchie found TripLink did not negligently misrepresent the vacation Yu purchased and is not responsible for how she felt about its quality.

The tribunal ordered Yu to pay TripLink $3,677 within 15 days of the May 10 decision: $3,447 for the vacation package, $55.37 for pre-judgment interest and $175 in tribunal fees.